Oceanography Exam #2 Questions With Complete Solutions
CH 7 -
How can oceanographers measure surface currents from space? - Correct Answers ✅Ekman transport and current motion cause the water surface to bulge and the departure from normal sea level can be measured by satellite radar.
Direct methods:
1) A floating device is released into the current and tracked through time 2) Fixed position- a current measuring device is lowered into the water
Indirect methods:
1) Determine the internal distribution of density and the corresponding pressure gradient across an area of the ocean 2) Use radar altimeters to determine the lumps and bulges at the ocean surface 3) Use a Doppler Flow Meter to transmit low-frequency sound signals through the water The Ekman spiral affects the direction of near surface water movement. If you lowered a current measuring device over the side of a ship in the northern hemisphere, what would you observe? - Correct Answers ✅As the instrument descended, the current direction would move progressively to the right of the wind until it actually was going in the opposite direction , and at greater depth it would move left. 1 / 2
Oceanography Exam #2 Questions With Complete Solutions What causes downwelling? - Correct Answers ✅Convergence of surface currents What causes upwelling? - Correct Answers ✅Diverging equatorial currents or coastal currents that pull water away from the coast.What is a western boundary current and how does it form? - Correct Answers ✅Currents that are poleward flowing and currents on the western side of all subtropical gyres and they are formed when the Coriolis effect deflect these current away from the equator.How does an equatorial countercurrent form? - Correct Answers ✅When the water on the western margins flow downhill under the influence of gravity.What is a geostrophic current? - Correct Answers ✅Results from balance between gravitational forces and the Coriolis effect.What is western intensification? - Correct Answers ✅When one west boundary current is faster that their respective eastern boundary current.
- / 2